THE President of Colebrooke Women’s Institute, Valerie Pennington, welcomed members plus two visitors to the Parish Hall for our November meeting.

Our speaker was Stewart Raine who gave us a talk and visual presentation on the development of the British Seaside Resort. Originally seaside resorts were called “Watering Places” as they tended to be at spas where there was drinking water.

The first seaside resort was at Scarborough with the second resort being at Exmouth.

Whilst we tend to think of the staycation as being a modern term, this actually dates from the Napoleonic Wars (1789-1815) when people couldn’t go abroad.

Initially it was the wealthy people who went to the seaside as there were no bank holidays or holidays for the ordinary people. They would travel by paddle steamer as this was safer than travelling by stagecoach.

From the 1780’s George III went to Weymouth each year and had a bathing machine from which he bathed. Back then, bathing was in the nude so the bathing machines were taken right into the sea, and men and women bathed on separate parts of the beach.

The Bank Holiday Act 1871, when Bank Holidays were brought in, helped to develop the seaside as this allowed ordinary people to go to the seaside for a day. The majority of the people would go by train so many railway stations tended to be built as close as possible to the coast at the seaside resorts.

Piers started out as being purely functional for the paddle steamers before they had amusements on them. Deckchairs started out as chairs on boats/ships and then kept the same name when they started being used on the beaches and promenades.

Originally visitors stayed in lodging houses and the landlady would cook the food which the visitors brought with them. These then developed into Bed and Breakfast establishments.

Holiday Camps developed following the Holiday Pay Act 1938 which allowed ordinary workers to have one week’s paid holiday per year by law.

By the 1890’s swimming costumes starting coming over here from America, but initially these covered people up well and they didn’t change until the 1950’s when they were more like the costumes we know today.

The 1950’s were the last heyday of the British seaside before people were drawn to the Continent for guaranteed sunshine and cheaper package holidays.

The business part of our meeting then followed. The minutes were read by Hazel and the correspondence was then read out. Our president is liaising with Colebrooke Parish Council regarding the tree we will be planting in the Amenity Area.

Our December meeting will be our Christmas Meeting.

Andrea Armstrong